Banh Da Lon (pig skin cake)
Banh Da Lon or “pig skin cake” is a Vietnamese steamed layer cake made from tapioca starch, rice flour, mashed mung beans, taro, or durian, coconut milk, water, and sugar.
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| It is sweet and gelatinously soft in texture, with thin (approximately 1 cm) colored layers alternating with layers of mung bean, durian, or taro filling. |
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| These petite cakes with soft colors look like a work of art and take a lot of time. |
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| Banh Da Lon Saigon specially flavored new glutinous rice flour is made from newly harvested grain to make a sleek and shiny surface. |
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| Green beans stuffed with cake have a small seed and yellow color inside. The seeds are washed and thoroughly steamed and then pureed. |
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| The cake’s shape and color is very important, so cake makers have to be skillful. During cake making, cake makers take coconut milk, Pandan leaf (for green color). |
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| Coconut milk, tapioca starch, glutinous flour, sugar divided in half, one half can be mixed with green bean, half of the remaining mixed with pandan leaf, filtered through a sieve. |
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| Cakes are steamed in a small heart-shaped mold, leaf or flower mold or in a bigger mold and are cut into small square pieces. |
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| Before steaming, cover an oil layer inside mold and place the mold into steam pot. Pour a layer of pandan leaf mixture into the mold, then steam, next pour mung bean paste. |
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| Do the same until dough is harder orfull in the mold. When the last layer is finished, wait for cake turn cool, then remove from the mold. |
